W.H. mulling emergency stimuli

One House Democratic leadership aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, doubted the research tax break would make it out of the Senate, even though business groups support it. "The R-and-D tax credit was part of the extenders package we sent to Senate months ago and they've been sitting on — thanks to the GOP, along with small business bill,” the aide said.

It’s even less clear how Obama would muster support for an infrastructure spending bill while avoiding the stigma of another big-ticket, deficit-swelling stimulus, albeit a far less ambitious one than the $800 billion bill Congress passed to rescue the economy in early 2009.

But the biggest pay-for tool in the economic kit, administrations officials say, would be to allow the Bush administration tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of Americans to lapse while extending the cuts for middle-income people.

“That’s the ultimate deficit reduction,” said a person briefed on the discussions, which come as congressional Democrats are leaning toward extending the credits for all taxpayers.

At least one soon-to-be-former administration official thinks a second stimulus spending package might be needed: Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Christina Romer.

“Concern about the deficit cannot be an excuse for leaving unemployed workers to suffer,” Romer said on Wednesday, according to a copy of a speech she gave at the National Press Club. “We have tools that would bring unemployment down without worsening our long-run fiscal outlook, if we can only find the will and the wisdom to use them.”